Sep 09
Good Show Sir Comments: Fire that Clown you hired for the kid’s party. He’s got the neighbours up in arms.
Published 1967
Good Show Sir Comments: Fire that Clown you hired for the kid’s party. He’s got the neighbours up in arms.
Published 1967
September 9th, 2015 at 10:50 am
I’m sorry, there will be no more arson about from the Fire Clown, Health & Safety shut him down with a bucket of water that he thought contained confetti – but didn’t.
September 9th, 2015 at 11:38 am
OK. First cover with a Blue Oyster Cult theme song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYg3vvVwj4Y
September 9th, 2015 at 11:41 am
It’s as if the cover art, as it was originally executed, extended only four-fifths of the way across the book, and they needed to add a superfluous rocket to occupy the left over space.
September 9th, 2015 at 12:14 pm
“The Circus is divided into four nations — the Water Jugglers, the Earth Lion Tamers, the Fire Clowns and the Air Acrobats…”
September 9th, 2015 at 1:28 pm
Cesar Romero’s album of Prodigy covers didn’t sell too well.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:28 pm
Why Impressionism ultimately failed.
September 9th, 2015 at 4:37 pm
The First Annual Gathering of the Juggalos
September 9th, 2015 at 5:02 pm
Oh God oh God oh God
September 9th, 2015 at 5:09 pm
I gotta give the editor some respect for the sheer balls of that cover. Clowns on fire in space! And those funhouse fonts!
September 9th, 2015 at 5:28 pm
Two dozen GSS regulars gather at Woomera to summon THE WORST COVER EVER CONCEIVED!
September 9th, 2015 at 7:16 pm
@DSWBT 10: you raise an interesting point—what’s worse here, the conception or the execution? It is a tough call. Looking at the cover makes you want to stab yourself in the eyes with an icepick, but thinking about it makes your head explode.
September 9th, 2015 at 11:00 pm
@DSWBT 10: You’ve just described the Burning Clown Festival!
September 9th, 2015 at 11:16 pm
He looks kind of horrified at the . . . whatever it is . . . in front of him. He wouldn’t be the only one.
September 10th, 2015 at 12:24 am
“I AM THE CLOWN OF HELLFIRE AND I BRING YOU…”
September 10th, 2015 at 12:38 am
@AnnaT: That would be us, on the other side of the monitor. 🙁
September 10th, 2015 at 1:10 am
@AnnaT: I’d say a horrified expression is appropriate when one’s junk is on fire.
September 10th, 2015 at 8:59 am
Where are the clowns? Send in the clowns…. ARGHHH IT BURNS! IT BURNS!
September 11th, 2015 at 10:50 pm
Pokèmon Go had a troubled roll-out…
September 13th, 2015 at 9:17 am
Why did the circus go out in flames?
They fired the clown.
September 14th, 2015 at 8:10 am
Ba-Da-Bum!
😀
October 4th, 2015 at 9:41 am
I believe Clowns can free the dying planet.
So long as they stop putting fires out with confetti
July 1st, 2016 at 7:10 pm
Attack-clowns on fire off the Pimple on Uranus… Time to fry!
December 2nd, 2022 at 3:19 pm
Has Michael Moorcock ever had a good cover illustration on anything he’s published?
What in heaven’s name did the poor man do to so upset every art editor at a publishing house in existence?
December 2nd, 2022 at 3:48 pm
Elric and the artists. Elrics first cover is….GSS worthy.
https://moorcography.org/elric-and-the-artists/
December 2nd, 2022 at 6:22 pm
BOC indeed had a friendship with Michael Moorcock, with Moorcock contributing lyric ideas to the band. Also contributing lyrics and lyric ideas were Patti Smith, Jim Carrol, Ian Hunter; writers Eric Von Lustbader and John Shirley (one of the first cyberpunk SF writers.) Quite a roster of talent. And all this time I thought of BOC as a second-rate milquetoast proto-metal band!
December 2nd, 2022 at 8:42 pm
The fireclown didn’t realize his audience was laughing at him, not with him.
December 2nd, 2022 at 10:05 pm
And so ends GSS Fire Week, with the goofiest one of the lot.
@Max: I only met him once, very briefly about 5 years ago, and he was a bit of a brusque old guy but he’d been lured to the con on dubious premises and was mostly grumpy at them, so David Gerrold told me later.* Other than that, he seemed fine, he was certainly fine with the public and polite to me. A legend in the field, active in music, Grand Master/Lifetime Achievement in several SFF/H organizations. He doesn’t seem to have deserved all these bad covers.
@fred: That first cover isn’t Elric, it’s a campy Roman. Like some actor portraying Miles Gloriosus or possibly a swishy soldier from Greece/Parthia. He’s ready for the ancient version of MPFC’s “Military Fairy” drill.
*Apologies for excessive name-dropping but I like to cite my sources.
December 2nd, 2022 at 11:05 pm
This cover is seriously WTF… I gave it a 10 because clowns and mimes creep me out (which is why I really enjoyed King’s “It”). Clowns in space SF make as much sense to me as adding a layer of marshmallow and peppermint candy into a lasagna…
@fred – thanks for the link to the Elric art – I have always been a fan of Gould’s version, tho my kid brother had an illustrated novel (late 80s?) that was also true to my imagination (don’t recall the artist)
December 2nd, 2022 at 11:44 pm
@Emster:Not a fan of “Killer Klowns from Outer space?” https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace
December 3rd, 2022 at 3:32 am
@Bruce – hmmmm… might have to try that one!
December 3rd, 2022 at 5:16 am
@GSS – The only albino thing about him are his eyebrows.